Filing cabinet



1,592,497 E. L. MAYS FILING CABINET Filed March 25, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 [I L. Mayf E. L. MAYS FILING CABINE' I' Filed March 23, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 13, 19 26. V

EVERETT L; MAYS, or CREOLA, ALABAMA.

I FILING CABINET.

Application filed March 23, 1925. Serial N0.'17,'78f.f

This invention relates to filing cabinets and more particularly to an improved filing cabinetfor use by grocerymen and other merchants in keeping the accounts of their customers. Ordinarily, where a tradesmen, such for example as a groceryman,conducts his business ona credit basis, he will, at the time of makinga sale, write down on a sales slip the customers name and the in articles purchased and thepurchase prices. giving carbon copy to the customer and retaining the original which is ordinarily places on a sticker tile for future reference in totaling the account at the end of the week, month, or other period for which the account is to run. This me hod of keeping accounts hasrhowever, been found to b81111 satisfactory inasmuch as the loss of slips results in arguments and possible loss of trade and, if at anytime the tradesman wishes to refer to slips of a back date, he has more or less difficulty in locating them in the stack of slips. on a sticker file. Likewise, sticker files occupy considerable space and are otherwise inconvenient to use. Therefore, the present invent-ion hasaslits primary object to provide a cabinet by the use of which'accounts may be more satisfactorily kept than by the old methods and without any of the disadvantages above noted.

The present invention contemplates the use of a sales slip pad or book for each customer, from whichbook the alternate leaves. constituting the carbon coples, may be torn and given to the customer at the time purchases are made, and another important ob j ect of the invention is to provide a cabinet so constructed and arranged that such pads or books may be most conveniently kept in times. I

Another object of the invention is to pro vide a cabinet of such constri'iction that it will serve not only as a filing device for'thc sales slip pads or books but also as a desk and, likewise. a convenient depository for money taken'in in the course of business.

In the accompanying drawings: 7

Figure 1 is a frontelevation of the cabinet embodying the invention} FigureQ is" a vertical front to rear sectional view therethrongh. taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating a port-ion of the cabinet.

Figure 4,- is a perspective view of one of filing order and made readilyaccessible at all the account slip pads to be tiled in the cabinet. a

T he cabinetcomprises side walls 1, a rear wail 2, a bottom 3, and a top 4; these walls as well as substantially all of the other structural parts of the cabinet, is of fire-proof or" heat-resisting. character and each well comprises, as for example in the case of the rear 'wallQ, inner and outer sheets and 6 of metal and a fi ler7ofasbestos or otherheat-resisting material; The side walls 1 of the cabinet are extended for wardly at their lower portions as is also the bottom 3, and afront wall 8 extends vertically from the forward edgeof't 1e bottom extension and transversely between the for- Each ofward edges offthe sidewall extensions to form a compartmentindicated by the nu meral 9, the top of which is closed by a top wall 10 extending rearwardly from the upper edge of the front wall 8 and between the upper edges of the side wall extensions,

thesaid top wall 10 terminating at'its rear edge at the open front of the cabinet and said front of the cabinet being'completely open above the plane of the said top wall 10. The walls 8 and 10 are of substantially the same heat resisting constructionras the pre-' viously described walls of the cabinet and a door 11- of similar construction is provided and is hinged at one edge which constitutes its lower edge when the door is closed, as at 12,. at the rear edge of the top wall 1'0of the compartment 9. lVhen the door 11 is swung to the upright position illustrated in dotted lines in Figure 2 of the drawings, se'ves to completely close the open front of the cabinet and, when swung downwardly to the full line position shown in Figures 1 i and 2, it constitutes in effect, a desk or Writ ing boardupon which the pads of account.

slips may be placed while making entries thereon. edge with a lock indicated by the numeral 13, so that when it isswung to closed position itmay be secured. in such position to not only prevent unauthorized persons gaining access to the account padswithin the cabinet but also to protect the pads in the event of fire in the vicinity of the cabinet.

The compartment 9 houses drawers 14" and 15 slidably mounted through openings in the front wall 8 of the compartment and slidably supported by angle iron slides 16 within the compartment. One of these drawers may be employed as a cash drawer The door is provided at its free 7 and the other drawer may be employed as a sate place for the deposit of valuable papers, the latter drawer being provided with a lock 16 whereby it may be secured in closed position.

A number of vertically disposed partition walls 17 are arranged within the body of the cabinet and extend perpendicularly between the bottom 3 and top t thereof in rear of the top wall of the compartment 9, and these walls 17 are preferably formed each with a number of horizontal slots 18 which. open through the rear edges of the walls. A number of supporting plates 19 are likewise arranged within the body of the cabinet and these plates are formed with slots 20 spaced at intervals corresponding; to the spacingof the partition walls and opening through the forward edges of the plates, the slots 20 accommodating the several partition walls at their "forward porions, and the slots 18 in the partition walls accommodating the plates 19. In this manner, the plates may be readily assembled with the partition walls and firmly supported, and the several plates and the partition walls provide, within the body of the cabinet, a number of pad receiving; compartments 21', the compartments being arranged. as illustrated in Figure l of the drawings, in a. plurality of vertical tiers. The account slip pads are indicated in general by the numeral 22 and do not differ materially "from a well known type, each pad comprising a plurality of account sips secured together by rivets or other "fasteners which. likewise secure to the assemblage of account slips, a backing sheet or strip 25 which extends beneath the stack 01" slips and is folded to provide a portion 26 extending over the tree edges of the slips, and a portion 27 which lies over and covers the true of the uppermost slip of the assemblage. in practice, one of the pads will be assigned to each customer and the customers name will be *rittenor printed, as at 28, upon the attached over-folded end of the cover sheet 25; as best shown in Figures 1 and 3 of the drawings. The plates 15) constitute the bottoms oi the several compartments 2i, and the forward edge of each compartment bottom supports a label holder indicated in general by the numeral 2' Each of these label holders comprises ametal strip pro vided with upper and lower parallel flanges 30 and a connecting end flange 31 located at one end of the strip so that a. pocket is provided in which is inserted a slip of paper or cardboard bearing the name of the cus tomer whose account slip pad is to be disposed within the compartment immediately beneath the respective label holder 29. The account slip pads are, of course, to be arranged alphabetically and in order that this may be best accomplished and the location of any particular pad more readily determined, a smaller rectangular label holder 33 is provided at the closed end of each label holder 29 and supported from the forward edge of the bottom of the respective compartment 21, and a small. rectangular piece of paper or cardboard 3st is disposed within the holder 33 and bears a letter of the alphabet, as indicated at 85, corresponding to the initial of the surname of the customer whose account slip pad is to be tiled in the compartment imn'iediately be neath the said holder 33. In this manner. provision is made for the. convenient filing ct he account slip pads in alphabetical order and, therefore, access may be readily had to any pad 'ithout in any way disturbing the other pads. In order that with drawal ot the pads may be facilitated, the plates 19, or, in other words, the bottoms of the compartments 2t, are formed in one for-- ward corner each with a finger notch indicated by the numeral 36, preferably located at the open end of the respective label holder 29, and inthis manner, as stated, the account slip pads may be grasped and removed with greater facility than if the notches were not provided, inasmuch as one forward corner of each pad will project orer the respective notch 36. As previously stated. when purchases are made, they will be entered upon the slips ot' the pads and the carbon copies produced, in the usual manner, are given to the customers, the originals of the slips ren'iaining intact with in the pads.

Her-vine thus what I claim is:

An account cabinet open at the "front and subdivided. into tiers of account slip compart-u'ients and having a base portion projectinp; iorwardly and constitutingan auxiliary cabinet. and, a single door for closing the front of the cabinet and the account Slip compartments, said door being hinged at its lower end to the. cabinet about in line with the inner upper portion ot the auxiliary cabinet and adapted when swung outward and downward to rest upon the auxiliary cabinet with its "rec end portion projecting in front of the t'orward cud oi the auxiliary cabinet.

In testimony whereof I atiix my si qna ture.

described the invention,

nvnnnrr L. MAYS. [as] 

